Monday Night Combat Review for XBLA

Written by:  • Edited by: Michael Hartman
Published Aug 30, 2010
4

Monday Night Combat is a multiplayer-focused shooter that draws heavily from tower defense games. It features frantic combat, strategic teamwork, and a colorful and cartoonish art style. A lack of a real singleplayer campaign may turn off some gamers, but online enthusiasts will have a blast.

Monday Night Combat Review

Monday Night Combat Cover
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Monday Night Combat is a squad-based third-person shooter set in a future where the sport of choice is bloodthirsty arena combat between teams of artificially cloned soldiers. Each team is tasked with both defending their own moneyball and assaulting the enemy squad's moneyball. There are lasers, rocket turrets, invisible robots, jetpacks, and all manner of chaotic weaponry available to help achieve these goals, guaranteeing a crowd-pleasing good time.

Monday Night Combat was created by a small developer called Uber Entertainment. It is an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive title, and available for 1,200 Microsoft points, or roughly $15 USD. Is this downloadable title worth your hard-earned cash? Read on to find out in our Monday Night Combat review.

Gameplay
Rating Good

Monday Night Combat Screenshot
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There are two game modes in Monday Night Combat: Blitz and Crossfire. Blitz can be played either single or multiplayer, and is essentially a glorified tower defense mode. Blitz features one team of human-controlled characters against swarms of A.I. robots who march to converge on your moneyball. You must work together to bolster your moneyball's defenses by combining your skills and building automated towers. When flying solo you do not have the advantage of teammates and must rely heavily on constructing towers to resist the robotic onslaught, which is arguably less exciting or fulfilling than a team-based multiplayer victory. Also of note is that singleplayer Blitz is the only solo offering in the game; there is no campaign mode, only skirmishes against A.I. adversaries.

Crossfire pits two teams of six players each against each other with the ultimate goal of destroying the enemy team's moneyball. Doing so is not as simple as waltzing up and shooting it, however. Each team has A.I. robots that accompany them in battle; only by piercing your opponents' defenses and guiding your mechanical companions to the enemies' moneyball will the impenetrable shield around the moneyball drop. Once your robots have dropped the moneyball's shield it can be directly attacked by you and your teammates. While this offensive maneuver is your main objective, the other team will of course be assaulting your moneyball at the same time, so splitting your attention between offense and defense becomes a perilous and imperative balance.

Monday Night Combat Screenshot
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There are six classes to choose from in Monday Night Combat: assault, sniper, support, tank, gunner and assassin. Each class has two different weapons, and a myriad of unique abilities. For example, the assault class can switch between either a machine gun or grenade launcher, and has the ability to hurl an area-of-effect bomb or charge into an enemy. The support class can heal teammates, snipers focus on ranged attacks, etc. Each class has a specific expertise, and combining your skills with those of the other members of your squad is paramount to an effective offensive or defensive strategy.

Defeating enemies will net you cash rewards, which can be used to upgrade your abilities. Periodically, the Monday Night Combat mascot, Bullseye, will make an appearance, and shooting him will garner a huge influx of cash. Money can also be used to build and upgrade defensive towers; these come in many flavors, such as rocket turrets, freeze rays, and laser cannons.

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